


Our New Twin-Sized Bed

by meretricula



Category: Fantastic Four (2015)
Genre: Hurt/Comfort, M/M, mentions of domestic violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-24
Updated: 2015-12-24
Packaged: 2018-05-09 02:01:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,951
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5521343
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/meretricula/pseuds/meretricula
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>Ben lasted a whole week after dropping Reed off in the city without getting into it with his older brother, which he thought might have been some kind of record. He was trying to keep busy so he wouldn't notice the ever-increasing lag time between Reed's snapchats, which mostly meant staying late at the garage to work on the car he was building for Reed's next birthday, and he made it all the way to Sunday without running into Donny or his gang. It was just Ben's luck that Reed decided to call on Monday. </i>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	Our New Twin-Sized Bed

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Liviapenn](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Liviapenn/gifts).



Ben lasted a whole week after dropping Reed off in the city without getting into it with his older brother, which he thought might have been some kind of record. He was trying to keep busy so he wouldn't notice the ever-increasing lag time between Reed's snapchats, which mostly meant staying late at the garage to work on the car he was building for Reed's next birthday, and he made it all the way to Sunday without running into Donny or his gang. It was just Ben's luck that Reed decided to call on Monday. 

"What is this, the Dark Ages?" Reed complained. "Turn on your webcam, asshole, I miss your ugly mug." 

"No, uh, I think it's broken or something," Ben lied. "The light won't turn on." 

"Hey, what's wrong with your voice? You sound all nasal," Reed said, zeroing in on the one thing that Ben didn't want him to notice with unerring accuracy. "Ben?" 

"I've got a cold, get off my back. Tell me about the weird science they've got you working on." 

"Ben, turn on the camera," Reed demanded. "Let me see." 

"Reed, seriously, it's nothing, can you just -- "

"Turn on the camera and let me see your face or so help me I will get on the next train back home," Reed said. "I will _walk_ back if I have to." 

Ben knew exactly how likely he was to win an argument with Reed when Reed was in this kind of mood, which was not at all. He added video to the call, and listened in resignation to Reed's breath hissing between his teeth. "I'm going to kill him," Reed said. 

"You wouldn't last five seconds in a fight with Donny and you know it," Ben said. 

"I wouldn't do it in a fistfight," Reed said, too calm. The hair on the back of Ben's neck stood up. "There's all kinds of chemicals lying around the labs here. It wouldn't even be hard." 

"Please don't use science to murder my brother," Ben said. "I'm not going to say he doesn't deserve it but I don't want to have to visit you in prison." 

"I wouldn't get _caught_ ," Reed muttered, but he let it go. "Whatever. Are you packed yet?" 

"Am I -- what?" 

"Are. You. Packed?" Reed asked with exaggerated patience. "Have you folded your clothes and put them and your essential toiletries in a suitcase? Are you prepared to spend a prolonged period of time away from home?" 

"I know what packed means, dickhead," Ben snapped. "Why would I be packing?" 

Reed glared. "I'm not letting you stay there by yourself to be Donny's punching bag all summer. Either you're coming here or I'm going back home. And you better not make me wreck my future of brilliant scientific innovation by leaving this internship the same week I started." 

"Reed..." Ben started. 

"You think I'm joking? I'm not. Throw your shit in a backpack and get your ass on a train, I'll meet you at the station when you get in." 

"I'm not leaving the car behind," Ben said, addressing the only part of Reed's insane plan that he felt prepared to handle. 

"You are a huge pain in my ass, you know that, right? So drive down in the fucking car, it got us both here before. I'll ask around and find someplace you can park it by the time you get here." 

"Reed, this is crazy," Ben said. He could feel himself about to be carried along by the force of Reed's determination like always, and made one last appeal to rationality. "Where am I even going to sleep? You have a twin bed." 

"You're pretty skinny, you'll fit just fine," Reed said heartlessly. "Or bring a sleeping bag. I gotta hang up and figure out where you're going to park. Text me when you're in the city?" He hit _end call_ before Βen could actually agree to anything. After a few seconds of staring at his screen, Ben shut his laptop, got up, and started packing. 

*

Ben wasn't sure what exactly he was expecting when he followed the directions Reed had texted him, but it wasn't to pull up in front of a regular one-family house in a residential neighborhood. He turned off the ignition and sat in the car for a few minutes, scrolling through his texts to make sure he hadn't ended up in the wrong place. _omw_ was still the last thing Reed had sent. 

He almost jumped out of his skin when a skinny white girl driving a sensible four-door sedan pulled up next to him and honked her horn. Ben scrunched down to make himself look less threatening and waved apologetically, ready to drive away -- he didn't belong in this neighborhood and neither did his car -- when Reed hopped out of the back. Ben was so relieved to see him that he got out of the car before he remembered what his face looked like. Reed had seen most of it over Skype, but he still lurched back like he was the one who'd gotten punched. "Ben..." 

Ben smiled weakly, trying not to jar his broken nose. "Hey, Reed." 

"Somebody sure did a number on you, man. You pick a bar fight or something?" The girl driving the sedan had parked it on the other side of the street and walked over, along with a young black guy who had apparently been in the car with her and Reed. 

"Ben's older brother is an asshole who likes to pick on people under his weight class," Reed said tightly, overlapping with the white girl's, "Oh my god, Johnny, shut _up_." 

The black kid -- Johnny, apparently -- held up his hands in apology. "Sorry, man. Didn't realize. Anyway, you can park in front of the house if you want, but you'll have to come back and move it for street cleaning. Or you can put it in the driveway. Up to you." 

"Won't you need the space for your car?" Ben asked cautiously. 

"Nah, mine's totaled, you can use my half of the driveway. Sue's just borrowing Dad's," Johnny added, with the air of someone who thought he was explaining a lot better than he actually was, "that's the only one we have right now, and it's a two-car driveway. I'll tell Dad I'm working on your car for a friend or something, he won't care so long as I don't try to drive it. Go ahead and take the space." 

"All right, um, thanks," Ben said. He was somehow unsurprised when Reed jumped in the passenger side when he got back in the car to move it. "Are you going to introduce your friends at some point?" 

"What?" Reed blinked, suddenly forced to focus on something other than Ben's bruised face. "Oh, shit, sorry. Yeah. We're not really friends or anything, though, we're just working on the same project at the lab." 

"I'm not going to be mad if you have friends who aren't me, you know." 

"I'm not trying to, like, spare your delicate feelings or whatever, asshole, come on. Sue's way out of my league, she's not going to hang out with some high school nerd in her free time. And Johnny's -- I don't even know what his deal is. He likes cars." 

" _I_ like cars," Ben pointed out. 

"Yeah, but you're -- you." 

"Thanks, dickface." 

"Shut up, you know what I mean." The car was parked safely in the driveway, so Ben got back out, pulling his backpack and duffle bag out of the backseat to give himself something to do. "Sue, Johnny, this is my best friend Ben," Reed said awkwardly. "He's going to be crashing with me for a while." 

"Nice to meet you," Johnny said, waving half-heartedly. 

Ben nodded back to him. "I appreciate you helping out," he said. 

"It's not a problem, but are you sure you don't want to go to a doctor?" Sue asked. She was very deliberately not staring at Ben's broken nose and black eye. "Or, like. The police?" 

"It's fine," Ben said. "I mean, I've had worse. So long as I don't get hit in the face again before this heals up, anyway." 

"Nobody's hitting you again," Reed said, so fiercely that Sue and Johnny both looked away. "Okay? He's never coming near you again. Never." 

"Okay," Ben said. He put his hand on Reed's elbow. "Reed, it's okay." 

"So where am I driving you?" Sue interrupted. 

"Just back to the Institute, I think," Ben said. "Okay, Reed?" 

"Yeah," Reed said. "Yeah, that's good. C'mon, let's put your stuff in the trunk." 

Reed was tense and silent for most of the ride, but Sue made a heroic effort at carrying the conversation, and once Johnny realized that Ben had rebuilt his car almost from scratch, they talked about engines for the rest of the trip. Every once in a while, Ben caught Sue looking at him in the rear-view mirror, but she didn't say anything else until she'd pulled up to drop him and Reed off. "So you can weld, right?" she asked. "If you do all that work on cars. And you've helped with Reed's experiments before." 

"Yeah, of course." 

"Have Reed bring you down to the lab tomorrow," she said. "I'm pretty sure we can find something to keep you busy." 

"Yeah!" Johnny said. "Man, I'm like the welding slave around here, it would be _awesome_ if you helped." 

Reed jerked to attention. "Is Dr. Storm -- "

"Don't worry about my dad," Sue said firmly. "I'll take care of it." 

"Thanks," Ben said. "I don't -- thank you." 

"Don't thank me until you realize how hard we'll work you," Sue said wryly. "See you tomorrow!" 

Ben worried that they would have to put on some kind of elaborate subterfuge to get into the dorm, but Reed just waved to the security guy and hustled him inside. "I'll show you around later," he said briefly. "Let's just get your stuff in my room." 

Reed's room was every bit as spartan as Ben remembered, with its lonely twin bed in the corner. "So, uh," he said, dropping his duffle on the floor. "I don't actually own a sleeping bag, but I brought a blanket, so -- "

"Don't even," Reed said, scowling. "Get in bed. I'm exhausted and I wasn't even driving, you must be about to fall over." 

"Okay," Ben said quietly. He kicked off his boots and lay down on his side facing the wall, carefully arranging himself to take up as little space as possible. He wasn't surprised to feel Reed curl up behind him, his face pressed against the back of Ben's neck. 

"You really freaked me out this morning," Reed said, barely audible. "I don't -- you know I hate it that he hurt you, but that's not -- why didn't you tell me?" 

"I didn't want to bother you," Ben said. His chest hurt worse now than any of the bruises Donny had given him. "I don't -- you have a chance at a new life here, Reed. I can't be the thing that holds you back." 

"You're not ever the thing that holds me back," Reed snapped, voice cracking. "We've done this together every step of the way so far. Fuck, you're the thing that pushes me forward, okay? So don't -- don't make me do this alone." 

"I won't," Ben said. "I won't, Reed, I promise." 

"You'd better," Reed muttered, but he seemed calmer now, more settled. His breathing got slower and steadier, and Ben held himself as still as possible, trying not to wake him up. Eventually he drifted off too, thinking about a future where he and Reed made it out together, every step of the way.


End file.
